CMO Birding

  I can’t help but wonder at the problems this summer signifies in terms of climate damage, and a part of me is  seriously concerned about the long-term implications of this many Caribbean, American and other regional birds in the Western Palearctic.  But on the simplest level, as a man who loves birds, knowing there’s a Brown Booby two hours from home two weeks after a Red-footed Booby is exciting and irresistible.  Kris and I waited as long as was possible to go and see this, and after a week of agonising news on the east coast (having been a day too late to see the Brown on Bishop Rock in the Scillies) we drove over early on the Saturday morning into mist and murky light. I love South Gare, and Teeside in general; the people there have been unfailingly welcoming and our birding karma in the area seems to centre around helping a lady get to the hospital after she had fallen and broken her leg last winter while looking for waxwings.  We do incredibly well here,...

  It’s taken me a while to get around to more posting following a hectic August and back to work with a vengeance in September.  My first experience of being there at the finding of a mega will live long in the memory. The second day on the Scillies gave us a chance to see Red-backed Shrike and a small number of migrants, but the late afternoon saw us take to the sea again in our second pelagic.  The target was Wilson’s Storm Petrel, and as we would be drifting and chumming, we were confident we would see at least one.  The sea was choppy but nothing too wild, and we buzzed past Bishop Rock (saw the Red-footed Booby there no fewer than four times, and it pretty much didn’t move on any of the four trips!) before heading out the the very edge of the Atlantic ridge to fish for blue sharks. The sharks were obliging, and the experienced fishermen caught and tagged two, an incredible sight itself.  Corys Shearwaters surrounded us in a constant stream, literally hundre...